Job-seekers scramble for opportunities at exhibition

Job-seekers scramble for opportunities at exhibition

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lely, 27, was standing in a line for nearly two hours together
with thousands of other job-seekers before she finally managed to
enter the job expo venue inside the Peninsula Hotel in Slipi,
West Jakarta on Tuesday.

Lely, a holder of a bachelor's degree in agriculture from a
private university in Yogyakarta, then joined hundreds of job-
seekers, most of whom were recent college graduates to browse the
jobs offered inside by 36 companies taking part in the fair.

"It is my fourth visit to such a job fair. In each fair, I've
submitted around five to 10 applications, but none of companies
invited me for an interview," Lely, who graduated in late 2002,
told The Jakarta Post.

Soon after her graduation, she left her hometown in Yogyakarta
to live with her brother in Cawang subdistrict, East Jakarta with
hopes of finding a job.

Like other people coming from outside Jakarta, Lely thought
that she could find a job more easily here. But she has begun to
realize that finding a job was not so easy, even though she has
been looking for more than two years here.

Lely was not alone. According to the head of the Jakarta
manpower agency Ali Zubeir, nearly one million people in the
capital were unemployed last year.

Over 2.5 million job-seekers, according to the Center for
Labor and Development Studies, are produced each year nationally,
while the country can absorb some 1.1 million jobs per annum,
leaving at least 1.4 million new job-seekers in the lurch.

The data is backed up by the huge crowds that throng to such
job expos.

In the on-going expo, which will wind up on Wednesday, job-
seekers can submit as many application forms as possible after
they buy a Rp 30,000 entry ticket. There, they can fill out forms
prepared by companies or submit complete applications, prepared
before they enter the venue.

Aan, 25, an information technology (IT) graduate from Gadjah
Mada University, also in Yogyakarta, for example, submitted 15
applications to different companies at the job fair organized by
the JobsDB.com.

"I hope I will be invited for an interview by some of those
companies," said Aan, who graduated late last June.

Like Lely and hundreds of other applicants, Aan, however,
realized that he should not expect much because he would be
competing with literally millions of rivals.

There are still many job-seekers with a lot of work
experience, who have been laid off due to the economic crisis.

He will also be competing against people who are seeking a
better job, like Ami, 27, a holder of a secretarial certificate,
who has been working for a small company in Central Jakarta.

Ami, a resident of Kebon Jeruk in West Jakarta, said she had
twice visited such a job expo. In Tuesday's fair, she submitted
10 applications.

"In the previous fair in Senayan, (Central Jakarta), I
submitted five applications. I got no responses. With these
applications I submitted today, I hope that I will be invited for
an interview," said Ami, who was seeking a better job because she
was currently paid only Rp 500,000 per month -- lower than the Rp
711,848 provincial minimum wage.

Hendra, a employee with JObsDB.com, however, stressed that
there was no guarantee that companies taking part in the fair
would invite applicants for interviews.

"We just facilitate the meeting. It is up to each company to
invite the applicants or not," he told the Post.